Beginning on August 8, 1914, Sir Ernest Shackleton led a crew of 27 Englishman to Antarctica in an attempt to make the first land crossing of Antarctica.

The expedition almost didn't happen as Shackleton offered his ships, stores, and services to his country the night before World War I began, but the Royal Navy and First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill desired that the journey proceed.

Australian photographer Frank Hurley brought 40 pounds of color photo equipment on the onerous journey and would have to dive into three feet of icy seawater to salvage cases of glass negative plates from their wrecked ship.

Good thing he did because the expedition became one of the earliest examples of color photography.

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What you so blithely call nearyby South Georges Island was 800 miles in a 20 ft open boat across one of the worst stretches of sea on earth. His survival story is perhaps the most remarkable in the history of mankind.